Any more musicians here? Gear/band-talk

**Rolf Wiking** · 08-27-2018, 10:28 AM

Ive been playing music for a good 20 years, mainly electric guitar but can also handle the bass and drums to some extent, and sing i bit too.

Right now im in a band called Himlavalvet (roughly translated to Heavens vault or the Vault of heaven). We try at least to play some sort of fusion of Stoner rock/metal, Doom, Heavy Rock and Sludge metal. I play the guitar and do a bit of singing, mainly vocal harmonies.
We sing in swedish and our debut album which we will record this autumn will be a concept album with stories and lyrics about Sami shamanism, cosmology and mysticism. The samis were the native people of Northern Sweden and Finland.

Weve been playing together for about 2 years and did our debut gig this summer to try to the songs before heading into the studio.

The song in the video is called "Nåjdens sång", and is about the Sami myth that the Nåjd (the shaman") could sing a song to protect a cosmic elk/moose that they saw in constellations from the Hunters in the sky.

Watch from 1:50 if you want to skip a long intro

My Gear

I am playing Gibson guitars mainly, although I do come across a good Epiphone once in a while, but I usually trade it away for pedals and such.
My main guitar is a 2011 Gibson SG Standard (which can be seen in the video), but I also have a 2002 Flying V and a 2012 Les Paul Custom.
I play on a Marshall DSL100, with lots of pedals, mainly Reaper and Boss.

Would be great to see other musicians in the unit!

// Wiking

**Fritz Bucholtz** · 08-27-2018, 04:53 PM

Well, you have one.

I don't play a lot any more, but back (waay back I guess) around '88 / '89 I was heavily involved in hair metal / rock in S. CA. I was involved in several bands, and the last (serious) one we were finally at a stage that we thought we could start looking to book gigs at the Whisky and / or the Roxy on Sunset Blvd and see if we could - just maybe - get signed. Alas, however... it didn't work out - our lead guitarist was one of those people who had to have a problem with something and would invent one if one didn't exist, and he created a problem with our drummer and base player. It all fell apart a few weeks later. I'd been doing nothing but music for almost 6 years at this point and had gotten nowhere with it, so I just threw in the towel and, as the song says, "... got a haircut and got a real job."

I've played in a few bar bands here and there over the years just for the fun of it and for some extra money, but the last one was more than 10 years ago, and I haven't played seriously since. I still play, but I don't dedicate anywhere near as much time and effort to it as I used to (and that itself breeds some frustration, when you suck, knowing how good you were years earlier... lol).

Equipment wise, I originally started out with a Yamaha-esque rock guitar (it was a generic brand, I don't even remember anymore). I was considering upgrading to either an ESP Horizon or a Jackson, and went to the Guitar Center in Hollywood - and there I saw my first Ibanez. I've been an Ibanez user ever since. Most of my guitars have been Ibanez Roadstar 550 models - I currently have a gold painted 550 with black smoked chrome hardware, rosewood fretboard, and an "Edge" floating tremolo system (Ibanez's version of the Floyd Rose III). When I was playing seriously, I used mostly Crate amps - I had a killer solid state G120C amp that could drive 1500 watts (that thing was LOUD). I have a generic one now just to practice with. Initially I used Boss effects pedals until I picked up a ZOOM programmable effects rack (it was an old model - similar to the current G5N). I unfortunately lost that in a move 10 years ago though. I used a wireless setup for my guitar as well... I liked to move around while on stage and yanked the line out of my amp a few times, and that was a lifesaver.

I usually played rhythm guitar, with a solo thrown in here or two, and did backing vocals. My original singer was a good friend of mine, and he had a voice and range that sounded a lot like Vince Neil.

Things have changed a LOT since I was really into playing years ago; technology and effects. We used monitor amps to feed our sound back to us which made being on stage really, really loud. You guys now have those awesome earplug monitors - man, I wish we'd had those back in the day... I wouldn't have so much hearing loss. :P

**Florian Hocke** · 09-19-2018, 09:09 AM

Another one reporting !
I really like singing, playing piano. My biggest influences are The Beatles, John Lennon, Guns and roses, and last but not least, "the Beast" a.k.a. Iron Maiden. But I like a lot of bands form rock/metal genre.
The singer with great S for me is definitely Bruce Dickinson from Maiden. It happened that from 2003 (it started early during my time at high school) I had few dozen of gigs with local Iron Maiden revival band. Some people said that I have very similar voice to Bruce D.
At home I sing with piano almost anything that appeals my ear (instrumental piano songs, favourite movie themes, etc.).
I used only Shure microphones, from wired to wireless (beta, SM 58).
Last gig was in 2016, from then we have problem with finding a proper drummer. So we are now at halt until someone take the job.
Fun fact: My singing started after english lesson at high school where our teacher brought lyrics to song Imagine form Lennon. We sang along and two classmates who sat next to me and were guitarists told me that I can actually sing. So I started to do something about it. Piano came along after few years, when I get as a christmas gift a 5 octave keyboard to practice singing and instantly learned Let It Be. I also tried guitar, but with no much success.